Chapter 2: The World's Most Expensive Junk
Han Do-Hyun stood in front of Gunter's Armory, clutching his wallet like a lifeline. He had exactly 50,000 won (about $40). In a world where S-Rank swords cost as much as a skyscraper, he was looking for a miracle.
'I need something to keep the monsters away,' he thought, his palms sweating. 'Something so long I don't have to get close, or something so sharp it scares them.'
He walked past the shimmering steel longswords and the glowing mana-staffs, his eyes averted from the impossible price tags. He headed straight for the "Disposal Bin" in the back, a rusty metal container labeled in faded paint: [JUNK - 99% DURABILITY LOSS].
Deep at the bottom, nestled between a cracked shield and a bent spearhead, he found it. A rusted, chipped kitchen cleaver. It looked like it had been used to chop wood for fifty years and then abandoned in a swamp.
[Item Identified: ???]
Do-Hyun's View
[Rusty Kitchen Knife - Attack Power: 1]
Description: A piece of trash. Might give a goblin tetanus if you're lucky.
The Glitched Reality
[The Butcher of Gods (Sealed)]
Hidden Effect: Absolute Severance. Ignores all physical and magical defenses.
"I'll take this," Do-Hyun said, his voice trembling because he was embarrassed to present such a pathetic item at the counter.
The shopkeeper, a retired A-Rank Hunter named Gunter with a network of scars over his arms, squinted. He knew that knife. He'd been trying to destroy it for a decade. Every time he put it in the forge, the magical flames would die. Every time he tried to melt it on an anvil, the anvil itself would crack. The cursed thing refused to be unmade.
'He picked it up like it was nothing,' Gunter thought, a chill running down his spine. 'That blade is imbued with a collapsing-star core. It weighs more than this entire building. And he's holding it with two fingers… while shivering? No, that's not a shiver. He's vibrating with contained power… mocking me for leaving it in the junk pile.'
As Do-Hyun walked out of the shop, trying to hide the humiliatingly rusty cleaver under his thin shirt, he bumped into someone. It felt less like hitting a person and more like colliding with a glacier. A scent of cold ozone and expensive perfume filled the air.
"Watch where you're going," a voice as sharp and cold as ice snapped.
Do-Hyun looked up. It was Park Min-Ah. The "Genius Heroine" of the Seoul Vanguard Guild. Rank-A at nineteen years old, a wielder of "Absolute Zero" magic, and arguably one of the most famous Hunters in the country.
Do-Hyun's brain sputtered to a halt. 'An A-Rank?! She's going to realize I'm a Level 0 fraud! She's going to report me for wasting the Association's time!'
He was so petrified he couldn't speak. He just stared at her, his eyes wide, his breath hitching in his throat.
[Skill Activated: Monarch's Silence (Passive)]
Effect: Your overwhelming presence prevents lesser beings from meeting your gaze. Those who dare are subjected to the pressure of your full aura.
Min-Ah froze. To her, this boy wasn't "scared." He was looking through her. His gaze was so intense, so devoid of fear or recognition, that it felt like her own blood was starting to crystallize. Her powerful mana, the force that had conquered A-Rank gates, instinctively recoiled, shrinking back like a mouse before a dragon.
'Who is this?' she thought, her hand reflexively dropping to the hilt of her sword. 'His presence... it's like staring into a black hole. And that thing under his shirt... is that a weapon? Its killing intent feels ancient… it's screaming.'
"I... I'm sorry," Do-Hyun finally managed to whisper, his voice cracking from sheer terror.
[Translation Active: The Voice of the End]
What Min-Ah heard, a voice that seemed to bypass her ears and speak directly to her soul,
"YOU ARE IN MY PATH. PRAY YOU ARE NOT AGAIN."
Min-Ah's heart stopped. She didn't consciously decide to move; her body reacted on pure instinct, slamming her back against the wall as if to make herself smaller. She watched him walk away—his slight, panicked stumble appearing to her as a gait so profound he seemed to be momentarily displacing space itself.
When he was gone, she realized she had been holding her breath, a fine layer of frost creeping across her own fingertips. Her hands were shaking uncontrollably.
"Check the security cameras," she commanded her assistant through chattering teeth. "Find out everything you can about that man. He's not a rookie. He's a walking cataclysm… a Disaster-Class entity in hiding."